wfn.org | Elder Rafe Pride revisits the Queen Mary

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6043 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

28-June-2000
GA00095

	Elder Rafe Pride revisits the Queen Mary

	by Midge Mack

LONG BEACH, June 28 - Back in nineteen forty four;
Rafe Pride sailed her off to war - - -

And today, 56 years later, Rafe A. Pride Sr. an elder from Charlotte
Presbytery, is again staying aboard the majestic Queen Mary as he attends
the 212th General Assembly.

	Pride is no stranger to Assemblies. He was a commissioner to the 1957
Assembly in Omaha, Neb. where  two denominations merged to form the United
Presbyterian Church and also attended the Assembly merging that denomination
with the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. to form the PC(USA) in 1983.  He
has attended every assembly  since except the 209th  (Syracuse, 1997)  when
he was ill. In 1986 he was an overture advocate as several women's
committees were merged to form the Women's Ministry Program Area.

	Pride was just 21 when he was sent to the European Theater of Operations,
embarking on the Queen Mary November 3, 1944. As a Technical Sergeant 4, he
was part of Company A, 420th Signal Construction Battalion, a telephone and
telegraph lineman, equipped with a 30 caliber M1 rifle. He subsequently
received the American Service Medal and the Eamet Service Medal with three
bronze stars for serving in the Ardennes, Central Europe, and Rhineland. He
also was awarded a good conduct medal and a World War II Victory medal. He
was in Germany at the time of armistice, then sent via Gibraltar and the
Panama Canal to the South Pacific where he served in the Philippines until
December, 1946.

	Back home he met and married his wife Mary. They produced three daughters
and two sons, and Pride worked for Railway Express, Central Motor Lines, and
Ryder, retiring in 1980. A member of the C.N. Jenkins Memorial Presbyterian
Church, he was ordained as a Deacon in 1952 and as an Elder in 1955. He
served as his congregation's treasurer for 32 years. He also  served the
Council of Catawba Synod when it merged with the Synod of the Chesapeake,
and more recently, the Synod of Mid-Atlantic.

	Perhaps Rafe Pride needs one more title, "Mr. Presbyterian."				

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